Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Rescue operation: the "unlifted" turtle by Alex Page


It had been a long and tiring Night Walk, with over 6 miles walked and 2 turtles worked. We got back to base with the sun rising and Rich, the walk leader, and I set about cleaning and putting away kit whilst Jenny, the other team member, rushed off to pack, as she was due to leave for the long weekend to Cahuita in less than an hour.

I was just finishing off a bowl of delicious porridge, and Rich was about to tuck into his, when the radio blurted out a rushed message from Diogo, who was the leader of the Morning Census team. Rich answered the radio to be told that they had found the turtle that PM1 had thought to have been lifted that night in the vegetation along the trail. They asked Rich to wake the Base Manager, Dave, so he could alert the local authorities that a dead poached turtle had been found. As Rich went to do this the radio went off again: ‘The turtle is alive. I repeat, the turtle is alive!’ Suddenly things got exciting!

We were told to wake up whoever was available, to come join the Morning Census team as quickly as possible and aid them in attempting to move the stranded turtle back to sea. People were roused and assembled within no time and we all set of to the beach. We pretty much ran along the track behind the beach to just beyond the house at mile 1, where we found Diogo, Sami, the other Morning Census Team member, and the turtle.

The turtle was lying on her back in a clearing in the vegetation at the side of the track. Marks were clearly visible along the trail from the beach, showing that she had been dragged about 200 metres from her nest. The rope used to do this was removed from her by Diogo and after checking her over and finding her thankfully unhurt, we set about attempting to move her.

It soon became obvious that even with all 5 of us trying, we were not going to get anywhere by trying to carry her. She was unbelievably heavy and it was impossible to get a good grip on her carapace, which was made wet by the surrounding vegetation. Instead we set about clearing a clear path through the vegetation with a machete to enable us to drag her to the trail. Even this was difficult and all 5 of us were needed to shuffle her along a metre or so at a time, making sure her flippers weren’t caught beneath her as we went.

Progress sped up considerably when we reached the track as we were able to manoeuvre her onto the wet grass between the track grooves, providing us with a low-friction surface for us to drag her along. Indeed at one point we were dragging her too quickly, causing her to become agitated and try to flip herself. We calmed her down and prevented her flipping, not wanting her to become righted before she had a clear path to the sea.

After a bit more dragging, we got to a suitable point to flip her and so did so then stood back to see how she would react. She had no trouble at all working out where to head and quickly set off towards the sea, that she must have missed sorely, having been out of it for an estimated 10 hours.

However, being a green turtle, and hence not all that smart, she managed to pick the most difficult route to the waves, ignoring the clear path we had expected her to take and instead heading into every tree, body pit and log along the way. After much deviation, the turtle finally made it to the shoreline and we all watched as she disappeared beneath the swell, thrilled to have been able to save her.

On inspection of her nest we found a large knife nearby, prompting us to think that it was only the fact that the potential turtle poachers had dropped their weapon, that had saved the turtle from being butchered. This was shocking to contemplate and we were pleased to have been able to stop the turtle lifters from returning later to finish off the job.

We traipsed back to base exhausted from our efforts but all truly glad to have been part of a successful rescue operation. I for one will never forget the experience.

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